Home Sales Pace Down

Sales of existing homes in the USA went down by 2.04% last month, to 4.86 million homes. That's well below last May (2007), by -15.48%. July sales pace figures released at the end of August.

Sales Pace by Region

For month-to-month comparisons, sales were down everywhere except in the West, which was up by .98%. The sales pace for resale homes was down by -3.14% in the South, -3.45% in the Midwest, and -6.50% in the Northeast.

That is month-to-month. Year-to-year presents a different picture. In the South, sales were slower by -18.14%, -17.65% in the Midwest, -15.84% in the Northeast, and only down -6.36% in the West.

This measure tracks units - condominiums, co-ops, and single-family homes. "Sales pace" means is that the National Association of Realtors calculates how many homes sold, makes adjustments for seasonal factors like weather and school, vacations, then calculates how many homes would sell in a year at that given pace.

Next Report & Definitions

July sales pace figures (and other statistics) released at the very end of August. All figures in this report based on June closings and statistics, the most recent available.

The median average is the "midpoint" sales price. Half the homes sold above that price and half below.

Home Prices Fall Again

Nationally, the median average sales price fell compared to last year, down by -6.07%, with the new median average sales price of a home was $215,000. The Midwest showed an actual increase of value of 2.82%, followed by declines in all other regions: South by -2.37%, Northeast by - 12.63% and the West by -17.22%.

We compare values to the same period a year ago. We do not use month-to-month comparisons because there are sometimes huge fluctuations in the size of houses that sell in different seasons. Larger houses sell during the summer when it is more convenient for families to move.

Inventory Up

It would take 11.1 months to sell all the existing homes currently available on the market at the current sales pace, and there are more homes on the market than last month. There are 4.490 million homes listed for sale. We're selling less than five million a year.

We measure inventory in two ways. "How many homes are available for sale?" and "How many months would it take to sell the total number of homes available for sale right now, at the current sales pace?" When the sales pace declines, inventory measured in months will increase, even if the same number of homes is for sale.